“Borrowing Aunt Fredda’s yard. My loft doesn’t allow pets. I need a place to keep this dog while I go check out my store. I’m expecting an insurance adjuster later this morning.”
Jarius frowned. “Yeah. I heard about the fire. Condolences, cousin.” He gave her a big hug that squashed her against his shirtfront. “I would have come by last night but we were working a wreck in the Mixmaster. Snarled two major interstates for hours. State troopers worked the incident. FWPD had the pleasure of rerouting traffic through miles of gridlocked neighborhoods.”
“It’s okay. The fire department boarded things up after I was taken to the emergency room.”
Jarius’s brows flew up his forehead. “Moms didn’t say nothing about an emergency room. Why were you in the emergency room?”
“Because I was sort of there when the fire started.” She glanced at the dog, not wanting to tell the whole truth about finding the unconscious man. “But I’m fine. The trip was only a precaution. I was released almost immediately. I didn’t tell Aunt Fredda that part. Just took a taxi here.”
Jarius glanced at the dog sitting politely by her side. “This the animal you saved from the fire?”
“How did you know?” Damn, he’d faked her out.
He pointed to his badge.
“Oh right.”
“You know Moms. She called me the second she hung up talking to you. That should have been you, cuz. You’re in trouble, you call me. I’m the po-lice.”
Carly sighed. After she told her aunt, she’d had to caution her not to tell anyone. If she hadn’t stopped her, her aunt would have immediately phoned about half of Fort Worth with news of her niece’s adventure the night before.
Jarius bent down and held out the back of his hand toward the shepherd. “Hey there, big fella. How’re you doing?”
The dog sniffed then licked Jarius’s hand. “Yeah. That’s right. We’re friendly.” He reached under and stroked the dog’s chest. “You’re a fine specimen, aren’t you? Bet you got all the neighborhood bitches in heat dogging your tracks.” He grinned. “Kinda like me and women.”
Carly watched her cousin in fascination. Jarius seldom wasted his considerable charm on anything that wasn’t a two-legged female.
“I can’t get him to eat. Think I should take him to a vet?”
“Looks okay to me.” After another scritching under the dog’s neck he stood up. “You should try making him work for it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Certain types of dogs are trained to be fed solely on a reward system. They got to work to eat. Bet he’s one of them. See how he’s watching your every move? He’s waiting for a command. Ask him to do something.”
“You mean like a trick?”
“I don’t know. I’m not the dog whisperer.”
Carly picked up a handful of dry food then turned to her furry guest. “Sit.”
The big shepherd immediately sat down, long heavy tail swishing back and forth.
“Good dog.” Carly placed a nugget of dry food in her palm and offered it to him.
He leaned forward, sniffed a couple of times, and then delicately took it from her.
Carly grinned at Jarius. “You were right.”
“Can I have that in writing? No, better a banner.” He held up his hands spaced wide. “Cousin Jarius is correct, again.”
“Cousin Jarius is full of himself.” Carly made the hand motion for down. The dog quickly complied. She offered him another nugget. This time he just stared at her. “Oh. Good dog. Good dog.”
The canine lunged forward and licked up the treat, swallowing it whole.
Carly beamed. “Poor baby. He must be starved. But one treat at a time is going to take me forever to feed him.”
“Yeah.” Jarius had moved to start opening cabinets. “You could take him out to fetch sticks or something. That’s a lot of dog to fill up.” He reached for a box of cereal, saw that it was one of those healthy granola mixes and shoved it back on the shelf. “But you should probably give him back to his owner.”
Carly sent him a startled glance. “What makes you think I know who his owner is?”
He shrugged. “You saved the man’s life. Thought you’d know his name.”
Her eyes narrowed at his tone. “Hold up. What do you know about last night? And don’t say “nothing,” because I know first responders gossip like teenage girls.”
“The fire? Nothing interesting.” He looked away and shrugged. “It was pretty routine.”
“It wasn’t routine for me.” Carly shivered and reached for more dry dog food. “Heel, boy.” The dog complied and got his treat. “A guy nearly died.”
“Right. About that. Don’t do that ever again.” Jarius moved to the pantry and stuck his head inside. “Even professionals won’t go into a fire without gear. There’s a thin line between bravery and stupidity.” His head popped out, a bag of chips in hand. “You crossed it.”
“Thanks for the tip.” Carly’s expression soured as she made a motion with her hand for her dog to sit and feed him another morsel. “For the record, nothing was on fire when I went into the store. I heard this dog whining and went to investigate.”